Your Trustee Directors
BTPS has a corporate trustee, BT Pension Scheme Trustees Ltd, and this company currently has nine Trustee Directors. In addition to the Chairman*, there are four employer nominated Trustee Directors and four member nominated Trustee Directors on the board.
*The Chairman is appointed by BT with the agreement of the recognised BT Trade Unions.
Click each photograph to read their biography.
Otto Thoreson (Chairman)
Appointment
Otto was appointed as Independent Chairman of the BT Pension Scheme Trustees on 15 February 2019.
Biography
Otto has extensive experience in pensions, financial services and consumer issues across a range of private and public sector organisations.
Before starting his portfolio career he was director general of the Association of British Insurers from 2011 to 2015. Previously he was chief executive of AEGON UK from 2005 to 2011. He was the independent reviewer of the Treasury Review of Generic Financial Advice – the Thoresen Review - published in 2008 which led to the creation of the Money Advice Service.
Otto became Chair of NEST Corporation on 1 February 2015. He is also Chairman of the Board of Aviva International Insurance, and the Board of Aberdeen Asset Management’s Life subsidiary.
David Felder
Appointment
David represents, and is a director of, The Law Debenture
Pension Trust Corporation plc, a professional independent
trustee of pension schemes. The Law Debenture
Pension Trust Corporation plc was appointed to the
Trustee Board on 15 September 2011. He is a member
of the Investment Committee and the Responsible
Investment Oversight Committee. He stepped down as a member of the AVC Committee on 18 May 2017.
He is also a non-executive director of BTPSM.
Biography
David has over thirty years of experience working with
pension funds in both the public and private sectors,
first at Morgan Grenfell as a fixed income fund manager
and then at Kleinwort Benson where he was head of
fixed income between 1992 and 1998. He is a fellow of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment.
Andy Kerr
Biography
Andy was employed by BT from 1975 to 2008. He served on the National Executive Committee of the CWU from 1997, was the President from 1999 to 2008 when he was elected to his current position as Deputy General Secretary (Telecoms and Financial Services). He is responsible for leading negotiations with BT on all occupational matters which has included pensions.
Andy is a former Trustee of the BT Retirement Plan, a Governance Committee member of the BT Retirement Saving Scheme and a Trustee of the NCU Staff Superannuation Scheme.
He has a pension from the BT Pension Scheme and is a member of the NFOP.
Ben Marshall
Appointment
Ben was appointed to the Trustee Board on 11 January
2017. He was appointed as a member of the Audit
Committee and the AVC Committee on 18 May 2017.
Biography
Ben has been a trustee of a number of pension schemes
continuously for over thirty years, and until his recent
retirement was both chair of the General Federation of
Trade Unions Pension Scheme and a member of the
board of governance of the Steria Defined Contribution
Scheme since its creation in 2010. He has also been a
trustee of the BT Retirement Plan (now the BTRSS and
now a GPP) and the Accenture AHRS DC scheme.
Ben was National Secretary of the Prospect Communications, Media and Digital Sector until May 2017. In that role, he was responsible for leading all negotiations with BT (and many other telecoms employers) on pensions on behalf of Prospect members. Before becoming a union official in 1984, he worked for the Post Office as an engineer. He has a pension from the Post Office Statutory Pension Scheme and is a member of the NFOP.
Billy McClory
Appointment
Billy was appointed to the Trustee Board on
1 September 1997. He is a member of the Investment
Committee and the Responsible Investment Oversight
Committee, and was a member of the Audit Committee
until 18 May 2017. He is also the senior non-executive
director of Hermes Fund Managers Limited.
Biography
Billy was employed by Post Office Telecommunications
from 1968 to 1978. He is a former national officer of the
CWU and its predecessor unions the Civil and Public
Services Association and the National Communications
Union (NCU). He was responsible for negotiations on pensions matters in the telecommunications and
financial services sector and was the lead officer for
pensions matters for the BT unions. He is a trustee of
the NCU Staff Superannuation Scheme and was chair
of its trustee board until 2011. He is a former trustee of
the BT Retirement Plan. Billy is a member of the NFOP.
Jim McInally
Appointment
Jim was appointed to the Trustee Board on
26 November 2012. He is a member of the
Administration and Communications Committee,
the Responsible Investment Oversight Committee
and the AVC Committee. He is also an independent
adviser to the BTPSM remuneration committee.
Biography
Jim is HR director for BT Group. He is a member
of BT’s senior leadership team, a trustee of the BT
Healthcare Trust and the BT Rehabilitation Trust.
Jim has extensive experience in remuneration and
benefits and has held senior remuneration and benefits
director roles at four FTSE100 companies. He read
Economics & Industrial Relations at the London
School of Economics & Political Science, and Social
Studies & Quantitative Methods at the University of
Oxford. He has further qualifications in Theology,
Moral Philosophy & Social Ethics and in Electrical
& Electronic Engineering.
Keith Nichols
Appointment
Keith was appointed to the Trustee Board on 15 May
2017. He was appointed a member of the Investment
Committee, the Administration and Communications
Committee and the Audit Committee on 18 May 2017.
Biography
Keith was recently chief financial officer and member of
the board of management at AkzoNobel N.V., where he
played a key role in the sale of Organon BioSciences to
Schering Plough and in the acquisition of ICI plc and its
related pension liabilities. Prior to joining AkzoNobel in
2005, he held various senior finance positions across
a number of industrial sectors for companies such as Corus Group plc, TPG N.V., WPP plc and BET plc. He is a Fellow of the Association of Corporate Treasurers.
Beryl Shepherd
Appointment
Beryl was appointed to the Trustee Board on 1 June
2009. She is chair of the AVC Committee and a member
of the Administration and Communications Committee.
Biography
Beryl has been employed by BT since 1978 and
is currently a member of the National Executive
Committee of the CWU, a position that she has held
since 2002. Since 2011 she has held the position of
chair of the Telecoms & Financial Services Executive of
the CWU. She is an active member of the Scheme and
a member of the NFOP.
John Wroe
Appointment
John was appointed to the Trustee Board on
1 July 2007. He is chair of the Audit Committee,
a member of the Investment Committee, and was
appointed chair of the Responsible Investment
Oversight Committee on 18 May 2017.
Biography
John joined BT Group in 1992 and held a number
of senior finance roles until his retirement from his
executive role in May 2017. Immediately prior to
retirement, he was group director of treasury for
BT Group, responsible for BT’s worldwide treasury
and insurance activities. He was a member of
BT’s senior leadership team. Prior to joining BT he worked for Coopers & Lybrand (now part of
PricewaterhouseCoopers). He is a Chartered
Accountant. John is a deferred member of the Scheme.